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Art: Yeats and Son/Up the Walls

T
he Model gallery in Sligo is worth a visit just to sample Slice, its excellent cafe. However, the recently extended building is currently housing two shows that provide plenty of visual nourishment as well. Yeats and Son features Jack B Yeats and his father, John Butler Yeats. The collection of Jack’s paintings spans his career, allowing us to chart his journey from The Minstrel Boy to The Graveyard Wall, above. There’s a wonderfully gloomy set piece on the funeral of Harry Boland in Glasnevin with the O’Connell Monument looming over the mourners. John’s portraits are mainly studies in pencil of some of his prominent contemporaries. The highlight was a fine portrait of his friend John O’Leary, the Fenian leader. For something completely different, head upstairs to the Up the Walls exhibition. Here seven international and Irish artists explore painting in innovative ways. Sonia Shiel’s quirky and macabre works provide a